The Writings of Alfred Percy Sinnett
The Occult World
By
A P Sinnett
Chapter 2
SECRET as the occult organization has
always remained, there is a good deal more to be learned concerning the
philosophical views which it has preserved or acquired, than might be supposed at
the first glance. As my own experience when fully described will show, the
great adepts of occultism themselves have no repugnance to the dissemination of
their religions philosophy So far as a world untrained as ours is in pure
psychological investigation can profit by such teaching. Nor even are they
unconquerably averse to the occasional manifestation of those superior powers
over the forces of Nature to which their extraordinary researches have led
them. The many apparently miraculous phenomena which I have witnessed through
occult agency could never have been exhibited if the general rule which
precludes the Brothers from the exhibition of their powers to uninitiated
persons were absolute.
As a general rule, indeed, the display
of any occult phenomenon for the purpose of exciting the wonder and admiration
of beholders is strictly forbidden. And indeed I should imagine that such
prohibition is absolute if there is no higher purpose involved. But it is plain
that with a purely philanthropic desire to spread the credit of a philosophical
system which is ennobling in its character, the Brothers may sometimes wisely
permit the display of abnormal phenomena when the minds to which such an appeal
t is made may be likely to rise from the appreciation of the wonder to a
befitting respect for the philosophy in which it accredits. And the history of the Theosophical
Society has been an expansion of this idea. That history has
been a chequered one, because the phenomena that have
been displayed have often failed of their effect, have sometimes become the
subject of a premature publicity, and have brought down on the study of occult
philosophy as regarded from the point of view of the outer world, and on the
devoted persons who have been chiefly identified with its encouragement by
means of the Theosophical
Society, a great deal of stupid ridicule and some malevolent
persecution.
It may be asked why the Brothers, if
they are really the great and all- powerful persons I represent them, have
permitted indiscretions of the kind referred to, but the inquiry is not so embarrassing as it may seem at the first glance. If the
picture of the Brothers that I have endeavoured to
present to the reader has been appreciated rightly, it will show them less
accurately qualified, in spite of their powers, than persons of lesser occult
development, to carryon any under taking which involves direct relations with a
multiplicity of ordinary people in the commonplace world. I gather the primary
purpose of the Brotherhood to be something very unlike the task I am engaged
in, for example, at this moment- the endeavour to
convince the public generally that there really are faculties latent in
humanity capable of such extraordinary development, that they carry us at a
bound to an immense distance beyond the dreams of physical science in reference
to the comprehension of Nature, and at the same time afford us positive
testimony concerning the constitution and destinies of the human soul. That is
a task on which it is reasonable to suppose the Brothers would cast a
sympathetic glance, but it will be obvious on a moment's reflection, that their
primary duty must be to keep alive the actuality of that knowledge, and of
those powers concerning which I am merely giving some shadowy account. If the
Brothers were to employ themselves on the large, rough business of hacking away
at the incredulity of a stolid multitude, at the acrimonious incredulity of the
materialistic phalanx, at the terrified and indignant incredulity of the
orthodox religious world, it is conceivable that they might- propter vitam vivendi perdere causas- suffer the occult science itself to decay for
the sake of persuading mankind that it did really exist. Of course it might be
suggested that division of labour might be possible in occultism as in
everything else, and that some adepts qualified for the work might be told off
for the purpose of breaking down the incredulity of modern science, while the
others would carry on the primary duties of their career in their own beloved
seclusion. But a suggestion of this kind, however practical it may sound to a
practical world, would probably present itself as eminently unpractical to the
true mystic. To begin with, an aspirant for occult honours
does not go through the tremendous and prolonged effort required to win him
success, in order at the end of all things to embrace a life in the midst of
the ordinary world, which on the hypothesis of his success in occultism must
necessarily be repugnant to him in the extreme. Probably there is not one real
adept who does not look with greater aversion and repugnance on any life except
a life of seclusion, than we of the outer world would look on the notion of
being buried alive in a remote mountain fastness where no foot or voice from
the outer world could penetrate. I shall very soon be able to show that the
love of seclusion, inherent in adeptship, does not
imply a mind vacant of the knowledge of European culture and manners. It is, on
the contrary, compatible with an amount of European culture and experience that
people acquainted merely with the commonplace aspects of Eastern life will be
surprised to find possible in the case of a man of Oriental birth.
Now, the imaginary adept told off of the
suggestion I am examining, to show the scientific world that there are realms
of knowledge it has not yet explored and faculties attainable to man that it
has not yet dreamed of possessing, would have to be either appointed to
discharge that duty, or to volunteer for it. In the one case we have to assume
that the occult fraternity is despotic in its treatment of its members in a
manner which all my observation leads me to believe it certainly is not; in the
other, we have to suppose some adept making a voluntary sacrifice of what he
regards as not only the most agreeable but also the higher life- for what? for
the sake of accomplishing a task which he does not regard as of very great
importance-relatively, at any rate, to that other task in which he may take a
part--the perpetuation and perhaps the development of the great science itself.
But I do not care to follow the argument any further, because it will come on
for special treatment in a different way presently. Enough for the moment to
indicate that there are considerations against the adoption of that method of
persuasion which, as far as the judgment of ordinary people would go, would
seem the best suited to the introduction of occult truths to modern intelligence.
And these considerations appear to have
prompted the acceptance by the Brothers, of the Theosophical
Society as a more or less imperfect, but still
the best available agency for the performance of a piece of work, in which,
without being actually prepared to enter on it themselves, they nevertheless
take a cordial interest.
And what are the peculiar conditions which
render the Theosophical
Society, the organization and management of which
have been faulty in many ways, the best agency hitherto available for the
propagation of occult truths ? The zeal and qualifications of its founder, Madame Blavatsky,
give the explanation required. It is obvious that to give any countenance or
support at all to a society concerned with the promulgation of occult
philosophy, it was necessary for the Brothers to be in occult communication
with it in some way or other. For it must be remembered that though it may seem
to us a very amazing and impossible thing to sit still at home and impress our
thoughts upon the mind of a distant friend by an effort of will, a Brother
living in an unknown Himalayan retreat is not only able to converse as freely
as he likes with any of his friends who are initiates like himself, in whatever
part of the world they may happen to be, but would find any other modes of
communication, such as those with which the crawling faculties of the outer world
have to be content, simply intolerable in their tedium and inefficacy. Besides,
he must be able to afford assistance to any society having its sphere of
operations among people in the world, be able to hear from it with the same
facility that he can send communications to it. So there must be an initiate at
the other end of the line Finally, the occult rules
evidently require this last-named condition, or what amounts to the same thing,
forbid arrangements which can only be avoided on this condition.
Now, Madame
Blavatsky is an initiate- is an adept to the extent of
possessing this magnificent power of psychological telegraphy with her occult
friends. That she has stopped short of that further development in adeptship that would have tided her right over the boundary
between this and the occult world altogether, is the circumstance which has
rendered her assumption of the task with which the Theosophical
Society is concerned compatible with the
considerations pointed out above as operating to prevent the assumption of such
a duty by a full adept. .As regards the supremely essential characteristic,
she has, in fact, been exactly suited to the emergency. How it came to pass
that her occult training carried her as far as it did and no further, is a
question into which it is fruitless to inquire, because the answer would
manifestly entail explanations which would impinge too closely on the secrets
of initiation which are never disclosed under any circumstances whatever. After
all she is a woman, -though her powerful mind, widely if erratically
cultivated, and perfectly dauntless courage proved among other ways on the
battlefield, but more than by any bravery with bullets, by her occult
initiation, renders the name, connoting what I it ordinarily does, rather
absurd in application to her,-and this has, perhaps, barred her from the
highest degrees in occultism that she might otherwise have attained. At all
events, after a course of occult study carried on for seven years in a
Himalayan retreat, and crowning a devotion to occult pursuits extending over
five-and-thirty or forty years, Madame
Blavatsky reappeared in the world, dazed, as she met ordinary
people going about in commonplace, benighted ignorance concerning the wonders
of occult science, at the mere thought of the stupendous gulf of experience
that separated her from them. She could hardly at first bear to associate with
them, for thinking of all she knew that they did not know and that she was
bound not to reveal. Any one can understand the burden of a great secret, but
the burden of such a secret as occultism, and the burden of great powers only
conferred on condition that their exercise should be very strictly
circumscribed by rule, must have been trying indeed.
Circumstances --or to put the matter more
plainly, the guidance of friends from whom, though she had left them behind in
the Himalayas on her return to Europe, she was no longer in danger of
separation, as we understand the term, induced her to visit America, and there,
assisted by some other persons whose interest in the subject was kindled by
occasional manifestations of her extraordinary powers, and notably by Colonel
Olcott, its life- devoted President, she founded the Theosophical
Society, the objects of which, as originally
defined, were to explore the latent psychological powers of man, and the
ancient Oriental literature in which the clue to these may be hidden, and in
which the philosophy of occult science may be partly discovered.
The Society took root readily in America,
while branches were also formed in England and elsewhere; but, leaving these to
take care of themselves, Madame Blavatsky
ultimately returned to India, to establish the Society there among the natives,
from whose natural hereditary sympathies with mysticism it was reasonable to
expect an ardent sympathy with a psychological enterprise which not only
appealed to their intuitive belief in the reality of yog
vidya, but also to their best patriotism, by
exhibiting India as the fountainhead of the highest if the least known and the
most secluded culture in the world.
Here, however, began the practical
blunders in the management of the Theosophical
Society which led to the incidents referred to
above, as having given it, so far, a chequered
career. Madame Blavatsky,
to begin with, was wholly unfamiliar with the everyday side of Indian life, her
previous visits having brought her only into contact with groups of people utterly
unconnected with the current social system and characteristics of the country
Nor could she have undertaken a worse preparation for Indian life than that
supplied by a residence of some years in the United States. This sent her out
to India unfurnished with the recommendations which she could readily have
obtained, if she had spent the time just referred to in England, and left her unprovided with information it was highly important for her
to possess concerning the true character of the British ruling classes of India
and their relations with the people.
The consequence was that Mme. Blavatsky,
on her first arrival in India, adopted an attitude of obtrusive sympathy with
the natives of the soil as compared with the Europeans, seeking their society
in a manner which, coupled with the fact that she made none of the usual
advances to European society, and with her manifestly Russian name, had the
effect not unnaturally of rendering her suspecte
to the rather clumsy organization which in India attempts to combine with
sundry others, the functions of a political police. These suspicions, it is
true, were allayed almost as soon as they were conceived, but not before Madame Blavatsky had been
made for a short time the object of an espionage so awkward that it
became grossly obvious to herself and roused her indignation to fever heat. To
a more phlegmatic nature the incident would have been little more than amusing,
but all accidents combined to develop trouble. A Russian by birth, though naturalised in the
Not that the Theosophical
Society failed to get members. The natives were :flattered at the attitude towards them taken up by
their new" European " friends, as Madame Blavatsky and
Colonel Olcott were no doubt generally regarded in spite of their American
nationality, and showed a shallow eagerness to become Theosophists. But their ardour did not always prove durable, and in some few cases
they showed a lamentable want of earnestness by breaking away from the Society
altogether.
Meanwhile, Madame Blavatsky began to
make friends amongst the Europeans, and in 1880 visited Simla,
where she began late in the day to approach her work from the right direction.
Again, however, some mistakes were made which have retarded the establishment
of the Theosophical
Society, as far as
Nothing is commoner than to hear people
say: " I can't believe in the reality of a
phenomenal occurrence unless I see it for myself. Show it me and I shall
believe in it, but not till then." Many people who say this are quite
mistaken as to what they would believe if the occurrence were shown to them. I
have over and over again seen phenomena of an absolutely genuine nature pass
before the eyes of people unused to investigating occurrences of the kind, and
leave no impression behind beyond an irritated conviction that they were
somehow being taken in. Just this happened in some conspicuous instances at Simla, and it is needless to say that many as were the
phenomena that Madame Blavatsky
produced, or was instrumental in producing, during the visit to which I am
referring, the number of people in the place who had no opportunity of seeing
them was considerably greater than that of the witnesses. And for these, as a
rule, the whole series of incidents presented itself simply as an imposition.
It was nothing to the purpose for the holders of this theory that there was a
glaring absence from the whole business of any motive for imposture, that a
considerable group of persons whose testimony and capacity would never have
been impugned had any other matter been under discussion, were emphatic in
their declarations as to the complete reality of the phenomena that had been
displayed. The commonplace mind could not assimilate the idea that it was face
to face with a new revelation in Nature, and any hypothesis, no matter how
absurd and illogical in its details, was preferable for the majority to the simple
grandeur of the truth.
On the whole, therefore, as Madame Blavatsky became a
celebrity in
And it is needless to say that many of the
newspapers made great capital out of the whole situation ridiculing Madame Blavatsky's dupes,
and twisting every bit of information that came out about her phenomena into
the most ludicrous shape it could be made to assume. Mockery of that sort was
naturally expected by English friends who avowed their belief in the reality of
Madame Blavatsky's powers,
and probably never gave one of them a moment's serious annoyance. But for the
oversensitive and excitable person chiefly concerned they were indescribably
tormenting, and eventually it grew doubtful whether her patience would stand
the strain put upon it; whether she would not relinquish altogether the
ungrateful task of inducing the world at large to accept the good gifts ,which
she had devoted her life to offering them. Happily, so far, no catastrophe has
ensued ; but no history of Columbus in chains for discovering a new world, or
Galileo in prison for announcing the true principles of astronomy, is more
remarkable for those who know all the bearings of the situation in India, as
regards the Theosophical
Society, than the sight of Madame Blavatsky,
slandered and ridiculed by most of the Anglo-Indian papers, and spoken of as a
charlatan by the commonplace crowd, in return for having freely offered them
some of the wonderful fruits- as much as the rules of the great occult
association permit her to offer-of the lifelong struggle in which she has
conquered her extraordinary knowledge.
In spite of all this, meanwhile, the Theosophical
Society remains the one organization which
supplies to inquirers who thirst for occult knowledge a link of communication,
however slight, with the great fraternity in the background which takes an
interest in its progress, and is accessible to its founder.
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